Dell Inspiron Laptop - No suitable X-Server found

**MSantangelo** · 06-11-2003, 06:16 AM

Okay... As I go through the standard boot up sequence for Knoppix I get this...

Starting X11.....
Retrying with Server XFree86(vesa) .
Retrying with Server XFree86(fbdev) .
Error: No Suitable X-Server found for your card.

I am at a complete loss, as I know the cd works (It works in my desktop PC), and the failsafe command does not work.

at the command line I use

knoppix lang=us screen=800x600 noscsi failsafe
(stalls if I do not include noscsi)
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

**garyng** · 06-11-2003, 07:03 AM

take away the screen= line and see if you can start with the vesa driver at 640x480.

you didn't tell what graphic chipset you have.

I have an inspiron 2500 which use i810 and had minor problem with XFree 4.21 and the XF86Config-4 shipped in early version of KNOPPIX. XFree 4.3 however works fine out of the box.

**stonent** · 06-11-2003, 08:21 AM

Yeah there's at least a dozen inspiron models. Like saying "My GM doesn't start"

**garyng** · 06-11-2003, 08:38 AM

Originally Posted by stonent

Yeah there's at least a dozen inspiron models. Like saying "My GM doesn't start"

That is easier to answer, get a Toyota or Honda

**stonent** · 06-11-2003, 08:40 AM

Aside from the NSX, Japanese cars don't do much for me.

**MSantangelo** · 06-11-2003, 12:39 PM

1) Inspiron 2600 using that very finicky I810 chipset from Intel for the video.
(Apologize for forgetting that - I shouldnt have posted at 2 in the morning lol)

2) I'll go ahead and try that vesa driver at 640.
Tried now.. It didn't go - same problem - no suitable X-Server. =/

I got Knoppix to go ahead and load completely with the following command line

knoppix lang=us xserver=XF86_SVGA xmodule=vesa noscsi noagp

however the screen resolution is so small as to prevent any real use.

(If I miss something really obvious, don't leave it out... I'm almost a complete Knoppix/Linux noob. =/)

Also, I don't know if it's useful, but every time I boot, I get the message

You passed an undefined mode number.
Press <RETURN> to see video modes available. <SPACE> to continue or wait 30 secs.

I'm not sure what to do here =/

**garyng** · 06-11-2003, 01:53 PM

As far as I know, 2600 is almost the same as my 2500 and it should work with i810 which KNOPPIX detected out of the box. You may try the following :

KNOPPIX 2

to get into runlevel 2 and "startx", much easier to debug as you can play around with the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 settings without reboot.

**MSantangelo** · 06-11-2003, 04:41 PM

What should I go about editing in this XF86Config-4 file?

Nevermind that I found some good stuff by other users on this =P

**Stephen** · 06-11-2003, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by MSantangelo

1)

knoppix lang=us xserver=XF86_SVGA xmodule=vesa noscsi noagp

however the screen resolution is so small as to prevent any real use.

(If I miss something really obvious, don't leave it out... I'm almost a complete Knoppix/Linux noob. =/)

Also, I don't know if it's useful, but every time I boot, I get the message

You passed an undefined mode number.
Press <RETURN> to see video modes available. <SPACE> to continue or wait 30 secs.

I'm not sure what to do here =/

Have you tried putting vga=normal in the cheat code?

**MSantangelo** · 06-11-2003, 04:50 PM

For all the editing I do, whenever I try to start the modified X-Server config (i got this error BEFORE I tried editing it as well)

(EE) I810(0): No Video BIOS modes for chosen depth.
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error: no screens found.

XIO: Fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0' after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining